ground-pine
1. The herbaceous plant Ajuga Chamæpitys; said to be named from its resinous smell.
| 1551 Turner Herbal i. I vj b, Grounde pyne, the leaues dronken seuen dayes in wyne hele the Iaundes. 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xviii. 28 In English also Chamæpitys, Ground Pyne, Herbe Iue, Forget me not. 1597 Gerarde Herbal ii. clxxxv. §i. 497 There be diuers sortes of Ground Pines growing neere vnto the sea. 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden cccxviii. 591 The Common Ground-pine groweth low, seldome rising to be above the height of an hand-breadth. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 122 Ground-Pine, flowers in July and August. 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. IV. 177 This plant is well called Ground Pine, as its narrow leaves look like a tuft of foliage taken from the pine-tree. |
2. The club moss (Lycopodium clavatum) or other species of Lycopodium.
| 1847 Emerson Poems, Each & All Wks. (Bohn) I. 400 The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath, Running over the club-moss burrs. 1880 Libr. Univ. Knowl. (U.S.) VII. 123 Ground-pine, the popular name of the lycopodium clavatum, an evergreen vine sometimes three yards long. |